MovieChat Forums > The Lady Vanishes (1938) Discussion > Is horrid model shot charming or embarra...

Is horrid model shot charming or embarrassing?

posted 18 years ago by filmfancritic
32 replies | jump to latest

Spoilers ahead.

Part of me finds it rather endearing , that is looking at a model car village which is supposed to be real location, but I mostly find it hilariously bad that such blatant minatures were allowed into a Hitchcock movie.

At first I thought it was a deliberate model shot, that the camera would pan back to reveal a kid playing with his train set and model village but I simply couldn't believe it when it was supposed to be real.

Don't get me wrong I really like Hitchcock and I enjoyed this film, but could you imagine Tarantino or Fincher inserting this shot into their films, I don't think so. The mere thought of this makes me laugh.

[–] PatrickGH91 9 years ago

Hitchcock clearly did this kind of thing deliberately. He was interested in telling the story, not establishing realism. Similar examples of hokey effects appear throughout his work. He deliberately violated aesthetic distance for artistic effect, as well as for technical expediency—that is, it's much quicker, easier and cheaper to produce an aerial shot of a model village than a real one, and therefore more desirable, provided that it serves it's purpose: to establish the setting. I personally consider it part of his genius. Others may miss the point.